Digital mammograms are often used to determine the health of women's breasts and are commonly used in early detection of breast cancer. However, mammograms might soon serve another purpose. Researchers have recently discovered that the X-ray device could help in finding out a patient's risk of developing heart disease.
According to Huffington Post, detecting a patient's risk of heart disease is possible by finding out the amount of calcium found within the breast arteries, which apparently mirrors the levels of calcium in the coronary arteries -- those responsible for pumping blood to the heart. The breast arteries are visible when a digital mammogram is being performed.
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As it turns out, the calcium found in the coronary arteries has long been known to be a sign of heart disease. The fact that a connection between calcium levels in both the coronary and breast arteries has been made is a means to "pay attention," Dr. Jagat Narula of Icahn School of Medicine at NYC's Mount Sinai and study co-author told Reuters Health.
The study consisted of 292 female participants who have gone through both a chest computed tomography (CT) scan and a digital mammography. The team of researchers analyzed the data, including factors attributed to heart disease risk: high levels of cholesterol, blood pressure, blood sugar and smoking.
Narula and the rest of the team discovered that 42.5 percent of the women had calcium in the breast arteries, which were found through digital mammography. According to Pulse Headlines, these women were "significantly older," had higher blood pressure and chronic disease in comparison to those who did not show any calcification in the breast arteries.
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Meanwhile, 47.5 percent of the study participants were found to have calcium within their coronary arteries. These women were discovered to have higher levels of diabetes and chronic kidney disease, in addition to being much older, having higher blood pressure and chronic disease than those who didn't have coronary arterial calcium.
After further inspection, Narula and the research team found that calcium in the breasts is 70 percent accurate in predicting the existence of calcium in the coronary arteries. As for women, the study's senior author, Dr. Laura Margolies, notes that women should ask their radiologists regarding the arteries in their breasts after getting a mammography done.
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"Women should ask their radiologists if there was any calcification in their breast arteries," Margolies said. "This information can then be given to their primary care doctors to be used in conjunction with standard risk factors to determine if further evaluation (or treatment) would be of benefit."
However, Margolies does admit that there is still a possibility of a "false positive." This basically means that not all calcium found in the breast arteries directly point to a heart disease, noting that people already diagnosed with the latter would have no advantage when it comes to finding out their breast arterial calcium content.
The team will present their findings at the American College of Cardiology on April 3 at its annual session in Chicago. Furthermore, the study was will also be published in the journal, JACC: Cardiovascular Imaging.
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